Replacement LED Courtesy Lights

cnst · **Posted:** Sat Apr 24, 2010 5:05 pm

Hello all,

I'm having a hard time finding a replacement for my two courtesy lights. The boat is a 2000 Horizon 230. The lights are oval shaped and measure 4" by 2" with a 1½" cutout. I really like the blue LED's but the only thing I can find falls short of covering either the 1½" hole or the screw holes along the 4" axis. They are all too small. Can anyone offer up a company that would have something like the size I need? Thanks.

230 Mike · **Posted:** Sat Apr 24, 2010 6:49 pm

Not sure I understand. Are you trying to replace the whole housing, or just the bulbs?

cnst · **Posted:** Sat Apr 24, 2010 9:19 pm

That would be the hole housing. I assumed I could not just replace the old incandescent bulb with LED. True?

230 Mike · **Posted:** Sat Apr 24, 2010 11:06 pm

Not necessarily, it depends on the bulb. I intend to replace all mine with LED's but intend to find just the bulbs (but can't help you much since I haven't done it yet :wink:

). If you can pull one of the existing bulbs and post what the bulb number is, we might be able to figure it out.

Walt · **Posted:** Sat Apr 24, 2010 11:49 pm

I believe this was the solution on another thread....SuperbrightLEDs

cnst · **Posted:** Sun Apr 25, 2010 9:36 am

Great! Between to two of you guys I think I've got it.
Here's a link to the light in question. http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|65136|739053|760439&id=1066537
It calls for a 168 bulb and it looks like the Superbright website has LED replacement bulbs for that.
Question remaining is will I get the effect of the bright blue LED throught the clear lens? Will it be bright enough?

Thanks guys.

Cap'n Morgan · **Posted:** Sun Apr 25, 2010 9:47 am

cnst wrote:

Question remaining is will I get the effect of the bright blue LED throught the clear lens? Will it be bright enough?

Yes.......... Yes.........

firecadet613 · **Posted:** Sun Apr 25, 2010 10:28 am

I tried replacing my cockpit lights in my 225 Sundowner with the 4LED red bulbs, and wasn't satisfied with the amount of light it put out. Same bulb housing that you have. Blue might be different. I'm leaving them white in my 268, unless the blue works out for you.

Cap'n Morgan · **Posted:** Sun Apr 25, 2010 10:35 am

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3543&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

cnst · **Posted:** Sun Apr 25, 2010 10:54 am

Thanks Cap'n. Good thread that I missed. I just bought (2 ea) the 6 LED bulb which is a more narrow beam and the 5 LED bulb which has 4 lights laid sideways and one pointing straight. Since the inside of my housing is supposed to have a chrome interior to help spread light, I'm curious which will work out the best. I'll update when I can. Your setup looks good BTW. I have a suspicion that this may not be the last lighting project...

firecadet613 · **Posted:** Sun Apr 25, 2010 11:02 am

Can't wait to see pics!

You need to pick up some 194 Red LED bulbs for your helm gauges...it will really help your night vision.

Cap'n Morgan · **Posted:** Sun Apr 25, 2010 12:33 pm

firecadet613 wrote:

You need to pick up some 194 Red LED bulbs for your helm gauges...it will really help your night vision.

I would not go so far as t say you "need" red bulbs for your gauges. Red lights at night can appear blurry,your eye needs to dilate more to collect red light and the curvature of your eye is a little rougher, which causes a bluriness. If you ever need to read a chart, or map at night, the red lights virtually are worthless. Not to mention, if you happen to have Red/Green colorblindness you cannot see red gauges at all. Not a problem for me, but may be for someone else. Also, LED bulbs will hot spot the gauges since they only put light forward, not from all sides like halogens.

Walt · **Posted:** Sun Apr 25, 2010 2:11 pm

I installed a dimmer on my helm gages recently. I haven't had it out at night yet, but made a world of difference in the driveway! ...Walt's Mod's

230 Mike · **Posted:** Sun Apr 25, 2010 2:11 pm

Good point, Cap'n. I'd add that the WLED (194) units at Superbrightleds diffuse all the light sideways, so they actually work really well in the gauges. And, they're available in several colors.

Kvou812 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 26, 2010 12:18 am

My F204 only came with 2 courtesy lights for whatever reason - one aft and one on the starboard or driver's side. I installed 2 additional ones - one on the port side and one up front in the bow section. I then put red LED bulbs in all 4 lights.

I used these bulbs: http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/ ... ED-xHP.htm

The picture below isn't that great because its taken with the cover on but you get the idea:

I also put LED bulbs in my guages. I went from this:

To this:

Hope this helps...

www.iFourWinns.com

Replacement LED Courtesy Lights

Who is online